This great kit gives you Organic Apoteke’s complete rejuvenating regime. Whether you are new to Organic Apoteke and would like to try the products or are an ardent fan and need smaller sizes to take on holiday. This kit is perfect for you. The kit gives you enough product for about 3 weeks. Each of these products have wonderful anti-aging benefits. However when used in combination optimal results are seen.

For centuries we have known that exercise is essential for good health – it gets the heart pumping and increases circulation. We know this is fact because after a 5 mile run our cheeks are glowing red and our heart rate is up. Improved circulation ensures that all the cells in our body get the nutrients and oxygen they need.

Organic Apoteke has developed products that also get the blood flowing to your cheeks without the 5 mile run. In fact this occurs while you sit on your couch for 15 minutes.

It is the constituents found in herbs or plants that give them their main actions and make herbal skin care effective. Here is a brief introduction to an important plant constituent, the sugars.

Sugars

Everyone is familiar with this. It is commercially extracted from sugar cane and sugar beet. There are small amounts of sugars in almost all leaves as they are manufactured in this part of the plant. Sugars are also stored in the roots of many herbs such as liquorice whose botanical name Glycyrrhiza means “sugar root”.

Some sugar related plant constituents called glycosides have very useful and wide ranging actions. A glycoside has a sugar part joined to different part that is usually responsible for its therapeutic action. The non-sugar parts vary enormously in structure and action. One example is lily of the valley. This plant has several glycosides that help to strengthen the heart muscle. It is actually the non-sugar parts that do this job, but the sugar parts help their initial absorption into the body and heart muscle. Glycosides are used for two reasons in natural skincare, they help get other vital ingredients absorbed into the skin and they also are used to hydrate the skin by binding onto water molecules.

Researchers from Japan’s Josai University, have published exciting research about animal testing alternatives in Pharmacetical Research Journal November 2009 [PMID: 19904581] GOOD NEWS!. Their conclusion:

Ingredient concentration in skin can be precisely predicted using a silicone membrane

The image is with thanks from Wikipedia where the Founder (Jimmy Wales) has put a personal ‘Appeal to Read’ about animal testing of cosmetics.

Talking of images…..With Copenhagen Climate Change Conferencehttp://en.cop15.dk/ in its final stages…..Even the Google UK Doodle competition highlights the natural beauty of the Earth, by a 15-year old artist inspired by David Attenborough’s unique perspective of Nature.

Sophie Redford(15) inspired by the beauty of the natural world

I would love to read your views on animal testing. I can assure you that Organic Apoteke does NOT & has NEVER been involved in animal testing. We are therefore accredited as cruelty-free and Vegetarian Society approved.

The holidays are upon us. This has been a strange year, although the festive lights and decorations were up in early November, the holiday spirit seems to have been delayed.

Hence with less than 10 days to go, I have began my present picking in earnest. Hoping that the frost and freeze in the UK does not delay deliveries as most of my shopping is being done online , I proceed to make my list.

I want to give gifts that people actually need. For me, last minute shopping will not result in presenting my loved ones with senseless and useless objects and trinkets that find their way from the back shelf to the charity store in 6 months.

Here goes my list and rational behind them:

1. Everybody could do with a detox in January after the holiday nibbles, have been cast aside. My number one stocking stuffer is the Organic Apoteke Detox Face Mask. All the puddings, candy and buttery roasts have their toll on your skin. This product is the ideal solution. Incidently last Christmas this sold out, so it seems that many have been thinking along the same lines.

2. Blink & Outlier, 2 books by Malcolm Gladwell. Both are real easy reads, very well written and share information we all need to know.

3. Natural, Herbal Body Cream to heal and protect winter skin. I can’t seem to have enough of the stuff this winter. My skin feeling drier than ever. Ensure you choose creams that are natural, organic and free from all the nasties. When you are covering the largest surface area with something, it has to be the best of the best. Remember everything you put on your skin gets into your body. When you put something on a larger area of your skin, more gets in.

4. Massage Vouchers at Spas close to your loved ones homes. These are easy to buy. Locate a Spa within easy reach for the recipient, either call them or go online and purchase a voucher for whatever value you are comfortable with. We all need some TLC after the last year, massage definitely makes the grade in that department.

5. A session with a lifecoach, yoga, meditation or tai chi instructor. Give them something they may not have tried but are inclined to enjoy. You many just help change somebodies life.

Yesterday I knew winter was here, when I heard the skin on legs make a soft rasping sound against my jeans…

Cold drizzly days make me want to sit inside and plan my garden, curl up with a book or begin a new knitting project, but there is just nothing cozy about dry chapped legs that make sandpaper seem smooth!

I whipped out my trusty Organic Apoteke Body Cream… I began with my right leg, smoothing it over my slightly red legs with a flaky white film over them.. the difference was instant, and it did not just make my skin soft and supple, it also turned my legs a pleasant golden tone. Wow, I had never noticed such a contrast before. I decided in the name of blogger-science that I would only apply the body cream to one leg and take picture the next day if you could still see the difference.

I woke up in the morning with an itchy left leg, and remembered my little experiment. I looked down at my legs, sure enough the leg that had been massaged with organic body cream was soft and had a healthy look, while the other leg was worse: flaky and parched.

I had to take a picture of this, but looked down and said ” I am not taking a picture of my stubbly legs and posting them on the internet”… I do have some pride! I got in the shower, shaved. I got dressed and checked my email. Plenty of to-do items in my inbox already… so forgot about my photo session for a while. When lunch time rolled I around checked my legs to see if I could still see the difference – was it worth taking a picture? (besides, I was dying to put body cream on my left leg!)

Here is the picture…I hope you can see the difference. Remember this is taken at lunch time the day after I applied the body cream, after a shower and a shave I could still see the difference (I hope you can to – aren’t iphones great?).

P.S. I have seasonally dry skin, but the Body Cream has been tested on people with chronic dry skin conditions such as exzema, with great success. stay tuned for more success stories…

It is the constituents found in herbs or plants that give them their main actions and make herbal skin care effective. Here is a brief introduction to an important plant constituent, Vitamins & Minerals.

Vitamins and Minerals

These are present in most plan material to some extent. Some herbs are recommended for their high nutritional content such as nettle for iron and rosehips for Vitamin C. Vitamins and minerals act as powerful anti-oxidants and they also provide the nutrients required to carry out numerous skin functions.

Like all parts of the body, the eyes need to be nourished properly. In addition to making sure the eyes are not strained by too much intense work or inadequate light or irritated by exposure to harsh cosmetic products and environmental toxins, proper eye care includes a healthy diet containing sufficient amounts of vitamins and minerals.

Here are some tips to maintain healthy functional eyes:

Take a multivitamin and mineral complex with selenium of 200mcg daily as these destroy radicals that can damage the eye.

Vitamin A complex : 15000IU daily no t more than 10000IU if you are pregnant. Because the light absorbing retinal pigment is composed of vitamin A and protein, which are constantly being used up as images are formed, adequate supplies of these nutrients are vital for healty eye function.

Vitamin B complex containing 100mg of each B vitamin daily

Vitamin C with bioflavonoids 2000mg 3 times daily.

Vitamin E 200IU daily

Zinc 50mg daily. Do not exceed 100mg from all supplements daily.

Bilberry extract has been shown to improve both normal and night vision. Have it in tincture form or use and eye cream that contains bilberry.

Drink fresh carrot juice which is high in Vitamin A. This can help alleviate some eye problems.

Eliminate sugar and white flour from your diet.

If you wear glasses, wear clear spectacle that have been treated to keep out UV rays. This will help protect against damage from UV exposure. Avoid wearing tinted glasses for this purpose, especially on a regular basis as dark glasses prevent the needed light from entering the eyes. The functioning of the pineal gland which plays an important role in the regulation of metabolism, behaviour and physiological functions, is largely governed by sunlight.

Never use hair dyes containing coal tar on the eyelashes or eyebrows. Doing so can cause injury or blindness. Although coal tar dyes are legal, marketing them for eyebrow or eyelash treatment is not.
Use only natural cosmetic products around your eyes. Products with harsh chemical ingredients can irritate and injure the eyes.

Mascaras, eyeliners and other eye makeup must be kept clean and changed regularly. Never use a mascara that is opened for more than 3 months. If these were at all contaminated with bacteria or other pathogens, you could infect your eye. Regularly wash make-up brushes that you use around your eyes.

The combination of nicotine, caffeine and sugar can cause visual disturbances. Reduce your intake of all 3.

Matrixyl (Palmitoyl pentapeptide-3) was the first synthetic peptide type developed by the corporations Sederma SA and L’Oreal and patented in the USA by Proctor & Gamble. Lately, it has generated a lot of media buzz and is found in a variety of skin care formulas on the market. Sederma SA claims that Matrixyl is at least as effective against wrinkles as retinol (synthetic Vitamin A) but does not cause skin irritation, which is a common side-effect of retinoids.

Matrixyl 3000: This is a more recent peptide raw material marketed by Sederma. It is also a synthetic pentapeptide (Palmitoyl-Lys-Thr-Thr-Lys-Ser) which is said to act as cell messengers able to regulate the sequence of events required for skin repair (wound healing). Both Matrixyl and Matrixyl 3000 are claimed to work in this way.

So, is there any science behind the hype? Chemically speaking, palmitoyl pentapeptide-3 (Pal-KTTKS) is a relatively small synthetic molecule. It consists of five amino acids linked together and attached to a fatty acid to enhance oil solubility for the sake of better skin penetration. It is structurally related to the precursor of collagen. Researchers found that when added to a culture of skin cells in a test tube, both Matrixyl and Matrixyl 3000 stimulated the synthesis of the key constituents of the skin matrix: collagen, elastin and glucosamnoglycans. How exactly they do this, remains unclear, although a number of theories exist.

Have they tested what happens to this synthetic peptide when it is metabolised within the body? Does it breakdown into its individual chemical components creating a toxic dump in the blood?

What are the long term effects?

Can synthetic chemical messengers that are put into the body stimulate tumor growth? Are we certain they don’t cause skin cancer?

Can the suppliers of the products containing Matrixyl and Matrixyl give us any answers? They have’nt as yet.

For centuries we have been eating fruit and vegetable high in amino acid and protein content. We understand how the amino acids from these natural sources are metabolised and excreted by the body. We know they are safe to use. Companies like Organic Apoteke have harvested this knowledge to create natural and organic amino acid and peptide complexes. Clinical and consumer studies show the efficacy of these natural, organic peptides which are similar if not greater than their synthetic alternatives. They too are shown to increase wound healing and decrease the depth and formation of wrinkles. And their safety profile is known.